dot hack Knights
by Shadow Master
Summary: BtVS.hackG.UThey say it's a great thing for someone to be rewarded for all the hard work they've done. Even if it isn't you but a friend it's great. However as Xander is about to realize there are some rewards that should be sent back.


"dot Hack Knights" by Shadow Master a.k.a Ryley Breen

email: ryley[underscorebreen[athotmail[dotcom

.Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials that appear in this fanfic. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I am making no profit off of this whatsoever.

Note: This was brought about by my recent purchase of volume 2 of the dot hack G.U videogame for the PS2 as well as watching the dot hack roots Anime series. Personally I think that both the game series and the anime series rock big time and I urge anyone who turned away from them without actually giving them a try to go back for a second look. While there might not be much to separate them from other similar Anime shows or other videogames I think that the story alone is worth at least a rental of the game or the downloading of a few episodes of the Anime series.

Note 2: This happens during the third season of BtVS shortly after Faith's arrival in Sunnydale but before any serious degree of turning to the dark side begins to show in her. As for the dot hack G.U this happens just about halfway through Volume one of the game series. Also While I know that according to the game info 'The World' is not supposed to come out or even exist until probably ten years from now but for the sake of a good fanfic and to avoid needless nitpicking that would just get in the way let it slide just this once.

Well enough of the boring stuff! Let's get to what I'm sure you readers clicked on the link to get to. So I guess all there is to say is **Welcome to 'The World'…**

Dot hack Knights 

_Today's the DAY! The day I finally dethrone that idiot spineless fool Alan Finch and take my rightful place at Mayor Wilkins' side!_ Robert Quincy thought as he walked down the hallway inside Sunnydale City Hall towards the ruler of Hellmouth's office.

That was what Richard Wilkins really was and he was one of the few people who knew about it that weren't imprisoned or six feet under at the moment. He learned about it all his third year of public service to the small Californian town and, thanks to some quick thinking concerning some idiot F.B.I agent that was snooping around, he was allowed to live with that knowledge. Ever since that day he'd steadily learned more and more about the Mayor, from how he managed to keep the world oblivious to the death toll in the town to how many powerful people owed the guy favors, until he made the decision that he wanted to be this man's second in command. After all, while he knew he'd probably have to be a nice little toady and probably handle the bulk of the work, there were certain benefits to being number two on the totem pole. Chief among them being, of course, the possibility of moving up to the number one spot should something 'unfortunate' happen to the former owner of the number one slot. Of course that was years from now when he had more power than Wilkins, but the other perks would be enough to satisfy him until then. However, when election year came up once again and the position of deputy mayor came up for grabs, who should get it but that spineless worm Finch. It took hexing and otherwise cursing every last person on his block to get the anger out of his system, but that last bit with Harris finally did it. From there he began to plan Finch's downfall and a way that he could assume the position he was destined for from the beginning. It had taken years but now he **knew** he had the perfect plan and it couldn't have come together at a better time.

From what his sources both inside and outside of city hall told him, this year was more important to Wilkins than any other in existence, since it would be this year that the man's plans for Ascension would come to fruition. He still wasn't entirely clear on what this would do to Richard, but in the end he decided that that didn't matter to him. All that **mattered** was that when it came time for the boss to get his big payday Robert J. Quincy would be the number two guy in the new world order. However, in order for that to happen, he had always known he'd have to come up with a magnificent plan that would outshine Finch's years of service completely and impress Wilkins greatly. It had taken a lot of research and a few costly bribes, but he now had a plan all set up to make him the Mayor's new golden boy. All he needed was Richard's approval and he'd not only eliminate all the potential obstacles to the Mayor's Ascension, but also provide him with some trophies to look at for years to come.

_Probably only two or three years since I doubt that bitch and her friends will last much longer than that with their bodies immobile for such an extended period of time._ He thought as he finally stood in front of the door of the most powerful man in Sunnydale, _Still, it'll hardly matter since I doubt they'll live that long anyway._

Knocking on the door as firmly yet politely as possible, he waited for a word from Wilkins that it was okay for him to enter, since anything else would be rude and, for some reason, the man who had sacrificed babies was obsessed with politeness and courtesy. Still, compared to some of the eccentricities of the other morally ambivalent residents of Sunnydale, it was a quirk he could tolerate.

"Come in." Wilkins said in that cheery polite tone of voice that had won over many a campaign contributor and subsequent voters.

Opening the door, he saw that he was coming in at the tail end of a meeting between Finch and Wilkins and, while he detested the sight of the spineless lackey, he found it somewhat appropriate for the upstart to be present at the beginning of his downfall.

"Ah Robert! To what do I owe your company today?" Wilkins asked, as though the two of them were longtime friends and colleagues.

"Well, Mr. Mayor, I know that this is a big year for you and all, so I thought I might do something to make the road a little smoother for you. I know that there are certain 'elements' that could prove problematic for you the closer you get to the big day, but I believe I've come up with a plan to sweep them aside for the time being." He replied, trying to make it clear he wanted to help ensure the success of the Ascension without saying anything too obvious.

"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Richard asked, sounding genuinely interested, but that would only remain depending on what was said next.

"Well after researching the 'elements' closely for potential weaknesses and looking through the traditional means of dealing with problems in Sunnydale, I came to the conclusion that an 'outside of the box' solution was needed. After all, the main traditional means of dealing with the Summer element would at the very least result in a temporary lull that would end when perhaps a superior element came to replace her and at the very most would make her suspicious of city hall." Quincy replied, trying to balance speaking between the lines with what he was saying being comprehensible, "However, I believe that I have come upon a solution that will not only remove her from your path but also put you in good favor with a powerful company led by a 'unique' board of directors.

"They currently are performing some 'experiments' on a select demographic using one of their products and managed to turn quite a profit at the same time. However there have been a few bumps in the road in which a minor portion of the purchasers of the product in question have either lapsed into unexplainable comas or suffered some kind of physical disablement that can be tied to an experience with the product." Robert explained with increasing confidence as he neared the crescendo of his sales pitch, "My idea is that we 'arrange' for the Summer element and her associates to come into possession of this product through subtle means and then arrange for one of the mentioned 'mysteries' of the product. It would be a rather convenient way of removing the disruptive elements from your path without it leading back to this office."

"An interesting proposal, Robert! Very interesting indeed," Wilkins said with a smile that definitely appeared genuine rather than a forgery. "However, how can you be sure that these 'disruptive elements' will fall victim to these 'mysteries'?"

"That is where the board of directors of the company comes into play, Mayor Wilkins. They are currently engaged in a rather ambitious Project at the moment to recreate an element of a previous version of the product and are always looking for any **unique** elements that could aide in making the Project a success," Quincy replied, knowing that Richard would ask that question. "When I provided them with a brief summary of the Summer element and her supporters, they seemed intrigued by the possibilities adding them to the Project might produce. I believe that with a little negotiation we will have no trouble gaining their co-operation in **arranging** for the Summer element and her supporters to be introduced to one of the 'mysteries' up close and personal.

"There will of course be a certain element of chance involved in just who will personally meet one of the 'mysteries', sir, but considering that no one has been able to discern a cure it is fairly safe to say that those who do have encounters will no longer pose you a problem." Robert concluded feeling that he had covered all the bases.

"What if the one or more of the supporters of the Summer element manage to **encounter** one of these mysteries before her and she gets scared off?" Finch asked, no doubt looking to head off a potential threat to his position.

"I'll admit that it could happen but considering the nature of the Summer element, I think there's a good chance that even if two or three of her supporters has an **encounter** before her, she'll still be willing to risk using the product if for no other reason than to look for a cure." He replied, not showing one bit of concern over the potential problems of his plan, "That's the beauty of it all. At the moment there is no existing way to restore someone who has had an encounter with one of these 'mysteries' and considering the compatibility issues between technology and the field that the Watcher element has expertise in, the odds of them finding a cure anytime soon are slim indeed."

"What about the successor effect of the Summer element? Your plan might just trigger it and make matters worse by adding a third member of the group the Summer element belongs to." Finch pointed out, apparently not willing to go down without a fight.

"If I remember the terms of the successor effect, it can only be triggered if one of the members of the group is terminated. Thanks to the effect of the 'mysteries', the Summer element will only be in stasis and, with a generous contribution of support from Sunnydale City Hall, we can make sure that termination does not even enter into the equation." Robert replied, cutting Finch's possible flaw to pieces, "So you see, Mayor Wilkins, no matter who has an encounter, it is almost a certainty that the Summer element will eventually use the product and have an encounter herself. Even if she somehow manages to elude the mysteries, it is doubtful if she will be as troublesome if enough of her supporters fall victim to one of the mysteries."

Now came the hard part: waiting to see if he would be given the green light to get the ball rolling with his plan or be informed that he was being reassigned to the 'graveyard shift', where there was always an opening waiting to be filled. He was fairly certain that he had covered all the bases in his presentation and laid them out in such a way that would be pleasing to Richard, but there was no way of knowing how Wilkins would take it all. The man seemed to pride himself on keeping everyone guess as to whether they would be praised and rewarded for their efforts or wind up as just another statistic added to the pile of existing ones in Sunnydale.

"You know, Robert, I think you just might be onto something with this idea. It's innovative and definitely original compared to some of the plans most of Sunnydale's unique citizenry come up with." Wilkins said, appearing to be quite intrigued by the idea, "So I've decided to let you run with it a bit. Alan here will make sure the appropriate resources are signed over to you and that any red tape gets cut through."

"Thank you Mr. Mayor!" He said, unable to keep the joy from his voice both at his idea passing inspection but also at the idea of Finch providing him with the tools to take the deputy mayor position.

"Of course, due to the eccentric nature of some of my supporters, I cannot be seen to support someone willing to deal with the board of directors I believe you are referring to. It just wouldn't be beneficial to me during such an important year." Richard said, sounding like he wanted to help but couldn't due to reasonable restrictions, "You understand right?"

"Of course, sir. I'll make certain that in anything I do from here on out, your name is never mentioned or that any evidence that exists is destroyed the second it's no longer needed." He said, doing his best to sound like there was no chance of a problem popping up.

"Good. Good. Also…" Wilkins said before fixing Quincy with a look that would have caused the Devil to shit his pants, "…please keep in mind that if for whatever reason this plan fails or, golly gee, even backfires on you, I'll have to seriously reconsider your position here in Sunnydale. Understand?"

"Y-y-yes s-sir." Quincy replied, those two words being the most he could get out of his mouth past the fear that threatened to freeze him solid.

"Well, that's just swell!" Wilkins said with the look of a typical man of the people politician on his face making his earlier scary visage seem like just a bad dream, "Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to start on the paperwork for the opening of the new hospital wing at the end of the month. After all it is important that the people of Sunnydale have nothing but the best medical care we can provide for them."

With that he followed Finch out of the room and found he had a new reason to hate Finch.

He now hated him for being the first out of the Mayor's office, since it meant that he had to be in the presence of someone that could give Satan lessons in evil a few moments longer.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Six Weeks Later, Sunnydale High School, Student Lounge, Noon 

"This is **so** not how someone like me should be spending their lunch break!" Cordelia complained as she tried to dip her sponge in the bucket without actually putting her hand in the bucket.

"Yeah, well, with Herr Snyder's watch dogs keeping an eye on us and no limit to the number of jocks willing to rat us out if we ditch this job, we're stuck with it." Xander stated trying to keep his anger at being roped into the job of cleaning the graffiti off the lockers from his words to his sometimes yes, sometimes no girlfriend.

"So how come Willow gets out of this?" Cordy said slightly less bitchily as she experimented with the various ways she could use the sponge to rub off the graffiti without abusing her perfect hands, "Snyder caught her at the same time as us!"

Sighing as he realized that while the young Miss Chase might have the looks of a super model, she also apparently had the stereotypical intelligence of one. Still, he knew that behind that bitchy Queen C exterior there was actually an okay person who was just putting up a front to protect herself from what people might think of the 'real her'. It was something he understood all too well but instead of trying to be what people would accept he chose to be himself. If people didn't like the real him, then they probably weren't worth knowing to begin with and those that actually wanted to be around someone like him he knew he'd be able to trust. If he could only convince Cordy that the opinions of the 'cool crowd' didn't matter as much as she probably thought they did she just might let the real her out for all to see.

"You heard Snyder. She got entered into some kind of big contest with some software company and won the grand prize." He replied, managing to dispel his earlier anger by quite a bit, "She had to go with him to the office in order to sign some papers for it and choose where she wanted it delivered. Apparently it's something the company suits are going to have to set up themselves since it's supposed to be super complicated."

"So we have to get our hands all covered in paint remover, cleaning off something someone painted on the lockers and Rosenberg gets some super expensive prize?!" Cordy asked rhetorically, not happy in the slightest and probably thinking that she deserved a prize more than the smartest girl in school, "How fair is **that?!**"

"The prize is probably going to be some kind of souped up computer system or something, so you probably wouldn't want it anyway Cor'," he said, dunking his sponge into the bucket before returning to his current foe, the letter 'R'.

"So! I could sell it and probably have enough money to pay for my entire spring wardrobe." Cordy shot back, obviously not willing to drop this conversation just yet.

"Cordy you're rich enough to pay of the spring wardrobes of our **entire CLASS!**" He snapped as his anger at his 'volunteer work' and Cordelia's usual bitching were wearing down his patience quickly, "You don't need more money!"

That fact was apparently enough to stop whatever climax Cordy's bitching was working towards since instead of firing another volley of verbage at him, she instead went back to their assigned task while still trying to keep as much gunk off her hands as possible. To this he sighed a mental sigh of relief, since her silence hopefully would allow him to focus on the work in front of him so that he could get it done and get gone before the entire day became a complete washout. All of them had already tried to use the usual excuses with Snyder for why they couldn't do the 'volunteer' work for very long, including that they had classes shortly. Unfortunately the king of mean had his bases covered and had written all of them a special exemption from classes for that day with one for tomorrow on his desk just waiting for his signature. There had been a few other vain attempts by Cordy and a few logical ones from Oz, but in the end there had been nothing that would budge the impotent Nazi from his position. Still if they could all finish scrubbing this off before the end of the day school bell rang they just might be able to salvage something of their daily allotment of free time.

Thus for the next three hours straight he did his best to obliterate the graffiti from the locker doors that lined that particular hallway of Sunnydale High. It wasn't until about half past four that an angel of mercy visited them all in the form of one Willow T. Rosenberg, who looked a mix of excited and wary. Almost like the prize she'd won was something really, **really** cool but that she wasn't quite sure she could figure out without some help. Considering how smart the Will-meister was, he didn't know why she was coming their way since, with the exception of Oz, neither he or Cordy managed more than a C+ grade average most of the time. Still, if it would somehow get them out of scrubbing down the locker doors, even if only for a little while, then he'd gladly volunteer his meager brain power to helping his best bud figure out whatever was bothering her.

"So Wills, what's the what?" He asked as he dropped his sponge into the bucket in preparation for what he hoped was his departure from this task.

"Well, I wasn't quite sure what the prize was going to be when I followed Snyder to his office, but then I found out that it was CyberConnect Corporation that was giving the prize and they're a really popular company based out of San Diego," Willow replied, obviously in full babble mode and would most likely need to get some of her pent up energy out before it'd even be possible to calm her down, "and what they gave me was a state of the art computer and gaming station that they said I could have set up anywhere and be the primary administrator for the system and I thought it was so cool until I wondered about what they meant by the gaming part of the station and…"

It was then that the redhead had no choice but to stop to draw in more air, lest she pass out from oxygen deprivation, so it was then he decided it would be best to intervene before she went any further.

"Okay, so what's the problem? You looked like that time we had those career placement tests and told you that you weren't on the list." He asked, trying to get her to focus on him rather than her own rambling.

"Well there's this game that's apparently takes up half of the station and… well… you know how I tend to stick to the programming and not so much the gaming… so I was kinda hoping that yo—" she replied before his mind leapt ahead to what she was about to say.

"Of course I'll help you set and up and learn how to play the game Wills!" He said not willing to pass up the chance to ditch cleaning lockers **AND** engage in his favorite past time outside of Twinkies, "With all the hours me and Jesse spent playing his Playstation and using his mom's computer to play DOOM, it'll be a piece of cake to get whatever game it is up and running with us having a complete blast all the way."

"Us?" She asked, proving her intelligence by picking out the one bump in his response.

"Well yeah! I mean it's easy enough to get a game up and running once you know how, but you're gonna need Guru Xander to show you the ropes for a while until you get a feel for how the game is played." He responded, trying to sound like he was doing it all for her rather than using it as an escape from the force labor of Snyder, "Some games can be pretty confusing especially if your just getting into gaming for the first time."

"You just want to ditch cleaning the lockers." Willow stated in perfect deadpan, reading him like a book inside of a second.

"Yep and can you really blame me?" Xander asked, as though he had expected from the beginning for his true intentions to be ferreted out which of course he had given who he was talking to at the moment.

"No, but maybe we should invite the rest of them just in case?" She replied question for question, "Oz? Cordy?"

"Sure." Was the reply from the one word man of the hour named Oz.

"If it'll get me away from these icky sponges I'll go anywhere with you two!" Cordy replied wholeheartedly before dropping her sponge into the bucket like it had suddenly transformed into a square block of cow manure.

Xander was oh-so-tempted right then to make some comment about 'mud wrestling' or wet T-Shirt contests, but then he remembered that that might require Willow to get involved so he immediately suppressed the impulse and banished the thought. "So it's unanimous! Now let's get going to wherever it is where this station thing is being set up before Snyder comes along and catches us leaving." He said, making a show of carefully examining every means of approach both human based and demonic from which the school principal might emerge.

"Knock it off, Xander!" Cordy exclaimed before smacking her sometimes boyfriend upside the back of the head.

"OW!" was all he could say to that and, with a roll of her eyes, Willow began leading them to the room where the suits from CC Corp were setting up the station.

_Why, oh why, do I always have to fall for the violent ones?_ He thought to himself as he moved to catch up with the rest of the group while massaging his abused cranium.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_**The New Computer Science and Gaming Room **_

_**(Formerly home to the Sci-Fi Club run by Chairman Jonathan Levinson)**_

Sunnydale High School, 5:15p.m 

"So Snyder really shut down the Sci-Fi club and handed you their room?" Xander asked Willow while he used every speck of gaming knowledge to complete the set up procedures popping up on the screen.

"Yeah. Jonathan and Andrew just walked right into Snyder's office when I was signing those papers that guy from CC Corp handed me and it sounded like they were going to ask permission to start some sort of fund raising so their club could go to some convention." Willow replied as she worked with Oz to get the non-gaming parts of the station all up and ready.

"A perfect example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." He stated with some sympathy for the two nerds now being without a place for their club, "Hmmmm… then again I seriously doubt that Snyder's office will ever be considered a right place."

"Point." Oz commented passing his girlfriend the next disk that needed to be installed.

While the guys from CC Corp had managed to actually set up the physical framework of the station and put all the hardware in the right places, they had pretty much left the actual installation of the software and all the wires for the quartet of teens to handle. Not that it was too difficult since most of the plugs and wires were color coded, but still he didn't want to set the thing to overload by accident, so he had pretty much been manual labor for Oz and Willow during that portion of the set up. Once the wires were all connected and all the different devices were plugged in, including the weird headsets and controllers, it had been his assigned task to get the game working while Wills and Oz got the non-gaming stuff up and running. Naturally all this time Cordy was either just sitting around or going to get them snacks when she could be persuaded (blackmailed) to do so. Still, when she was out of the room, it had been pretty much a united opinion of the three that Queen C would never touch anything on the station except in moments of extreme emergency or insanity. Personally, he was figuring it would have to be the latter more than the former since even during an emergency it was going to have to be pretty desperate to count on Cordy to do anything with a computer.

"Okay I think I've finished setting things up for the game half of this thing." He declared after clicking on the final button of the game set up directions, "How about on your guys' end?"

"Yep! We're good to go!" Willow replied with a smile that made it clear she was glad the setting up was over and was eager to actually start using the station.

"Well then get over here so we can give this game a try!" He said, already choosing his headset and controller.

"Xander! This is more than just some kind of game system." Willow said with a roll of her eyes, as if she couldn't believe that she had expected anything other than gaming to be one the mind of her bestest friend, "This is a top of the line, state of the art, computer station that probably costs more than the entire Sunnydale High School Budget for the past three years combined!"

"So? It's technically yours now and I figure you should at least get some use out of the gaming half before you forget about it and use only the hacking parts of it." He said, knowing all too well that with this much computing power at her fingertips the redheaded daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg wouldn't be able to resist seeing what she could find her way into online.

"Xander!" Exclaimed Willow, who while having a slightly guilty look in her eyes did everything facially to deny that she was a hacker or would use the station to hack into systems she wasn't supposed to online.

Naturally he didn't believe her face for a moment, since he knew her best with Oz coming in a close second.

"ANYways you should at least give the game a try. I've actually heard some pretty good things about it at the gaming store and online." He said recalling the times in Ms. Calendar's class when he surfed the net rather than do the assigned exercise, "'The World' is supposed to be pretty good and right on the cutting edge of VR gaming. They say you can barely tell that what you're seeing is computer generated and that's only if you go in there looking for the flaws. If you just play it you don't notice the problems at all."

"Yeah. I think I've heard Ron mention it a couple of times." Oz stated about his friend in the 'Dingoes Ate My Baby' band.

Naturally, with the endorsement of her boyfriend, Willow started to look like she might actually give 'The World' a try and while he was slightly miffed at that, he didn't let it bother him too much. He imagined that it would pretty much be the same with Willow whenever she saw him with Cordy or actually take Queen C's advice every once and awhile. Besides anything that encouraged Wills to give the game a try instead of keeping the station strictly for academic or hacking purposes had his full backing.

"Okay, but I get the pink headset." Willow said as she slid her chair over to where he was with Oz close behind her.

Once it'd all been sorted out it terms of who got which headset and what colored controller he double clicked on the 'The World' icon on the computer's desktop and sat back to watch the opening sequence of the game. It started out pretty basic with the progress bar showing the various plug-ins and programs being loaded but then they finally go to the important part which was the main menu.

"Okay, since you're the big expert, what now?" Willow asked with a bit of playful mocking of his gaming expertise.

"Well, if I read the manual right we now have to set up our own personal character accounts. Just your basic sign up stuff for the most part, with a few things here and there to make your character file unique." He replied as he began to fill in what would be screen name 'Nighthawk' along with things like passwords and an email address, "Once all that is done it'll be time to design your character from what they have available."

"Design your character? What do you mean, Xan?" Willow asked, looking in his direction never mind that her vision was a bit obscured thanks to the headset.

"Well, there's the obvious things to choose, like the gender of your character and then you can choose whether you want to be a human or some kind of animal person." He replied as he himself chose a human form with a face and hair matching his real life characteristics as closely as possible, "Then you choose from the ten types of weapon classes: Twin blade, Edge punisher, Lord Partizan, Blade brandier, Macabre dancer, Flick reaper, Tribal grappler, Harvest cleric, Steam gunner, Shadow warlock and Adept rogue. So just look at the descriptions of the character types and pick the one you want."

Trusting his egghead pal to be able to figure out this part of the start up process herself without him holding her hand, he focused instead on choosing what he wanted in a character. His first possibility was an Edge punisher, due to the large blade and high attack points, but he decided against it when he noticed how slow he'd likely be with such a heavy weapon. After more than two years fighting by Buffy's side he knew that speed and maneuverability were important in battle, sometimes more so than brute strength, so he'd want something with a little more speed. That made him consider becoming a Steam gunner, since it would let him use both long range and short range attacks as well as possessing the speed he wanted. However he then recalled reading online that steam gunners used their SP points up pretty quick, leaving them with only normal attacks to use against their enemies. So in the end he decided to choose what he felt was the halfway choice between the Edge punisher and the Steam gunner and that was the Blade brandier. It had speed, accuracy and agility with the potential to be devastating to an enemy if given the right equipment and time to level up. Besides which, most of the swords he'd seen Blade brandiers use in the pics of 'The World' looked pretty cool, plus his mind had conjured up some wonderful images of him as a Zorro type player, or maybe Robin Hood. So without further hesitation he locked in his choice as a Blade brandier and chose a color scheme for his outfit that was a mix of blues, grays and whites. He was a little hesitant to use white considering what Deadboy had said about him last year when Buffy was in the hospital, but no other color really went with blue or gray. With that done he was all set to enter 'The World' and so figuring that Willow and Oz would be right behind him he clicked on the log in button.

It was a little disorienting at first, the brightness of the white light and then the resolution into what he'd seen in pics of 'The World', but when it was all done he was shocked solid by the realism of everything he saw around him. He knew he must look like a complete idiot and as he would later find out his character's jaw had dropped in perfect synch with his real one outside the game. However, when someone placed a hand on his shoulder, he was introduced into a whole new height of shock when he actually kinda sorta felt it as though someone was really putting a hand on his shoulder. Pressing a little too quickly and perhaps a little hardly on the buttons of his controller to turn his character around, he saw what looked like a young woman with a inner tube for a hat and clothes that were a unique cross between innocent and sexy. This of course was due to the **really** short dress that showed off the stocking clad long legs and was pretty much sleeveless except for what he had to call arm warmers covering the character's forearms. Topping it all off was a short cape that fell down her back that kinda looked like angel wings and it was that last feature in addition to the distinctly Willow-ish expression. The color scheme of the outfit was pretty much what he expected with red being the primary color used (including the character's hair) with a little green used as contrast.

"Eeeep! Xander, cool it! It's just me!!" Willow's character exclaimed in surprise after jumping back in shock.

"Sorry Wills but I'm just a little floored by the realism of all this." He said, now having a firm grasp of how he looked to other players and immediately tried to resume his usual laid back way of acting.

"I thought you said you knew all about this game?" She asked with narrowing eyes as she no doubt began to suspect that her bestest yellow crayon friend had fibbed a bit.

"I've read about it and seen pictures of it online but that doesn't even come **CLOSE** to seeing it up close and personal like this." He said, defending his reaction with something perfectly rational and logical, "Besides, I actually **felt** your hand on my shoulder so excuse me if I'm a little wigged out by it all."

"That's because of the S.R.S function of your headset Xander." She stated, sounding like he should have known about it all along, "S.R.S stands for Stimuli Response System and what it's a series of miniature sensors placed inside your headset that monitors and in some cases stimulates certain areas of your brain to produced the required results."

The blank look on his face must have made it clear how clueless he was about what she'd just said because she rolled her eyes in exasperation along with letting out a sigh.

"There are tiny little gizmos inside your headset that sense what you're feeling and make your character look like its feeling the same emotions. It can also make you feel things by poking certain parts of your brain at the right moments." Willow explained, obviously finding it almost painful to dumb down such a scientific marvel so he could understand it.

"Isn't that kinda dangerous? What if it pokes too hard?" He asked, not liking the idea of something sending microwaves or something into his head to make him feel good or bad depending on the situation.

"Don't worry, Xander. The headsets don't have the power to do anything serious to you. The most you might have to worry about would be a headache or maybe some dizziness but that's it." Willow replied as her character took on a reassuring look, "Besides I'm sure a big name company like CC Corp wouldn't put anything out on the market that could be harmful. It'd be bad for business."

"Okay, but just in case I'm gonna violate the gamers code and not play this game for more than a few hours a day." He said still not liking the idea of doo-hickeys messing with his head but unwilling to discard the wonder of 'The World' just yet, "So where's Oz?"

"Right here," came a reply in Oz's usual 'as few words as possible' way of talking.

Turning to look at the voice he found himself looking at what was clearly a beast person type of character that was definitely of the canine variety. This was something of a surprise, given Oz's dislike of his werewolf half, but he figured this'd probably also be something of a goal for the bass player. After all in 'The World', the character type might be part animal but their human halves were in complete control the entire time and he figured that was what Oz wanted to one day be able to do in the real world. Oz was dressed in a way that seemed to fit the canine-like character, wearing Native American leathers and boots with two straps criss-crossing his chest as well as a nasty looking lance in his right hand. All in all he looked pretty tough and, after some leveling up, he had no doubt that Oz's character would be that tough as far as fights went.

"Lookin' good Oz! Very warriorish." He said with a smile.

"Ditto." Oz said nodding at Xander's outfit.

It wasn't much to look at but he figured it fit him best and didn't look anything like a 'White Knight' so he was satisfied with it. Gray boots and pants with a sleeveless blue tunic as well as gloves with brown leather armor here and there to top it all off. With this combo, he could easily fit into the role of either one of Robin Hood's merry men or the faithful sidekick of the black fox, Zorro.

"So what do we do now?" Willow asked once again looking to him for answers as far as what to do now that they were playing the game.

"Well first thing we could do is explore this online city called… Mac Anu." He replied, pointing to the doors that would lead them out of the dome-roofed room with the strange gyroscope thing, "Then we take a stop by the quest shop and pick up a job."

"A job?" Oz asked and somehow made his character's right eyebrow rise a bit.

"Yeah. Part of the fun of 'The World' is that there's no storyline to follow or specific objective to meet. You can pretty much do what you want at any time and it's supposedly a great way to meet people, since it's kind of like a chat since you can actually talk to characters being run by people on the other side of the world." He replied with his usual lopsided grin before beginning to walk towards the exit, "Plus they're the best way to level up, according to an online FAQ about 'The World'."

"Okay. Let's go." Willow said following him with Oz taking up the rear.

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Real World, 5:45p.m, Driveway of one Robert J. Quincy 

"Mr. Quincy," came an emotionless voice from behind him that almost made him jump with fright before he recognized to whom it belonged.

"Mr. Sanders! I would appreciate it if you didn't sneak up on me like that. Especially in this town!" Quincy exclaimed before getting his emotions under control.

"Sorry." Sanders said without meaning it one bit, "I just thought I'd inform you that three of the subjects that you informed us of have logged into 'The World' and two of them have the 'bait' inside of them. One of our people is holding back on the last two until the prime subject has logged on, but we are confident that it won't be long until she does."

"Good. The sooner she gets Pked by one of them the better." Quincy said in a satisfied manner as he began to see his long hours of planning finally beginning to pay off.

"As I said, once our 'wolves' catch wind of the bait within the two characters, it won't be long before they make an appearance." Suit Sanders stated like he was reading something from a dictionary, "According to our projections it shouldn't take longer than a week for the first of them to succumb to the effects of being killed by one of them and then the stage will be set for the prime subject to enter 'The World'."

Knowing that goody-goody mentality of Summers, it was probably right on the mark as far as what the Slayer would do once one of her friends had an 'encounter' in 'The World'. From there it would just be a matter of minutes before the single biggest threat to Richard Wilkins' Ascension would be removed from Sunnydale for good. Without her none of her groupies would be able to mount any serious opposition and would likely be killed by some random demon before the 'big day'. Sure, there was that second Slayer, but according to the reports he'd been able to find she was something of a violence junkie and so she'd probably bite off more than she could chew sooner or later. In fact, after the Slayers, the only person he'd count as a threat would be that Rosenberg girl that'd they used to get the trap into position. While the reports didn't highlight her as a serious threat, he saw in her the potential to become a serious magical threat if she continued down her current path, so he seriously hoped that she was one of the subjects that had been implanted with the 'bait'.

_Speaking of which…_ he thought before looking Sanders right in the eye and asking, "What exactly is the 'bait'?"

For a moment it looked as though the suit-wearing Sanders was just going to walk away but then he seemed to consider something before nodding to himself.

"I cannot divulge everything to you Mr. Quincy, but I can say that they were failures in CC Corp's attempt to replicate the necessary materials to recreate a vital part of 'The World'. Not one of them displayed the characteristics we were looking for, even when subjected to extreme stimulus." Sanders replied sounding like he had planned this double talk all along, "They were going to be destroyed until you approached us with this plan and we began to consider if we might still be able to get the materials to respond by using more 'unique' hosts. Considering there is usually only one Slayer per generation, the possible benefits of agreeing to your plan looked promising."

"These 'benefits' won't allow her to escape from 'The World', will they?" Quincy asked, not wanting his plan to backfire because the blonde Slayer somehow managed to pull off a miracle.

"Highly unlikely, Mr. Quincy. Even if Ms. Summers should manage to use the 'bait' to its full potential, CC Corp will be sure to extract it from her before she can use it to escape." Sanders replied with a firm and resolute tone of voice, "We at CC Corp pride ourselves in adhering to the letter of our agreements and upholding our end of the bargain. Rest assured, Mr. Quincy, that Buffy Anne Summers, once Lost, will never be found again."

Closing his eyes and saying a silent prayer to whatever higher or lower being had seen fit to help his plan succeed as much as it had, he was about to say similar thanks to Mr. Sanders but when he opened his eyes the suit from CC Corp was gone. Shocked he looked both up and down the street as well as in the shadows for the man. He even looked **UP** of all places just in case the suit turned out to be one of the corporation's more unusual employees but he found nothing.

For a moment he wondered if he had made the right choice in approaching such an unusual corporation, but then realized that he was far, **far** too involved in it all to back out now. Wilkins wouldn't be pleased if he went back to his office with cold feet or ideas about pulling the plug on his own plan. Besides, even if he managed to somehow survive Richard's wrath, he would likely be demoted so far down the chain of command that the next time he got a chance at the deputy mayor position he'd be in a wheelchair.

_This __**HAS**__ to work!! _He thought as he walked towards the front door of his home, _I can't afford for this plan to fall apart!!_

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Ten Days Later, The 'World' Room, Evening 

"What's up X?" Faith asked, poking her head into the room that the Xan-man had asked her to meet him in.

"Hey Faith! Just thought I'd see if you'd be interested in diving into the World to wind down after that mess with Miss Post." He replied checking his 'World' emails just in case one of the friends he'd made there had sent him anything interesting.

"I was never much into gaming back home, Xan'. I was 'fraid it might hurt my rep." Faith said and, despite her statement, she moved closer to the screen he was at just to satisfy her interest concerning what this 'World' looked like.

"I doubt that. Besides, 'The World isn't like any game you've likely heard of before. As far as it is concerned, gaming is not just for nerds and geeks anymore." He said with an encouraging smile, "Why don't you give it a try? If you don't like it we can just hand off your character to someone else or trash it."

For a moment it looked like she might actually decline once again, but then she got a look on her face that had him a little uncomfortable. It was what he had privately dubbed her 'cat seeing a tasty mouse' look and it almost always meant embarrassment, mass discomfort or several new happy places for him to visualize during Mrs. Perkins' biology classes. He didn't mind the last one much, since Faith was definitely living up to the Slayer beauty standards set by Buffy and Kendra, but the two former ones he could really do without. However, more often than not, it was the two former feelings that Faith always shot for but hopefully since they'd be spending most of their time in 'The World' it'd limit what the brunette Slayer had to work with.

"Okay, boytoy! So, do I get my own joystick or you gonna let me borrow yours?" She asked with a look in her eyes that practically screamed double entendre.

"Y-you get your own." He replied, barely able to keep himself from completely spacing out at the image the double meaning question produced, "Plus a headset, which'll be necessary in order for you to play the game."

From there he pretty much went through the same process he had with Willow and Oz as far as how to create an account then choose their character type. Deciding that he didn't want to wait around and let her use the various choices to make him even hotter under the collar, he immediately dove into the game once he felt she knew enough. More used to the headset than he had been in the beginning, he barely felt anything as 'The World' took form before his eyes. Once there he decided he'd stock up on health drinks and sprite drops, since he figured that this being Faith's first time and all she'd probably need plenty of both. Once finished he turned back to the Chaos Gate, a teleportation system for getting to areas and servers in The World, and had the good time to see whom he presumed was Faith, since the character's level was at one. However, when the swirling blue light of teleportation vanished he knew that any chance he had for getting a break from her mind games just got the crap Pked out of it. He knew at first glance what character type she'd chosen and out of the corner of his eye he could see that it was attracting quite a bit of attention from other players in the main dome of Mac Anu.

Starting from the bottom were thigh high leather boots that, while not high heeled, had straps and buckles at strategic spots. Next came the smallest pair of short shorts he had ever seen and he would have called what he saw bikini bottoms if not for the button and zipper on the front. Naturally Faith just had to have a top that was equally indecent and it was since it was pretty much a leather halter top that served to show off her chest especially with small half inch thick straps outlining them. Topping it all off was a pair of fingerless gloves with armored knuckles and several black tattoos on the exposed parts of her character's body. Aside from that, though, she looked pretty close to how she did in the real world but in The World she was an Adept Rogue, according to the information that was coming up on his headset and his own knowledge of the defining characteristics of the various character classes.

Fortunately her first glimpse of what the world was like from the inside was enough to cause even Faith's jaw to drop and seeing her with such open awe and curiosity was a nice change from the 'girl with the attitude' Faith he normally saw. Unfortunately it was only a brief lapse and almost in the blink of an eye she got over her initial wonder at her first look at The World and was back to being her usual self.

"So this is the digital you, eh, X? Gotta say I'm liking what I'm seein'!" She said just before doing a half-baked runway twirl to show off her own character, "What about you? You like what you see?"

Knowing that he was damned no matter what if he answered that question he decided to just pretend he didn't hear it and headed for the entrance/exit of the dome building.

"C'mon. I'll show you around Mac Anu and show you where the best shops are, then we can hit a field so you can see what fighting's like in The World." He said over his shoulder without turning his head.

If he had turned around, he might have seen a genuine look of hurt on the digital face of the dark Slayer, but it would have been only temporary as a light bulb appeared to click on inside her head, causing her to take on a downright seductive and aggressive look face-wise. To those that knew her, they'd recognize that as the look she usually had one when saw an enticing challenge to her seduction skills as well as perhaps someone different from the usual losers she seemed to attract.

In other words, Xander had just turned himself into a big fat and juicy steak to the hungry lioness named Faith.

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Area: Delta Courageous Engaging Daydream, Twenty Minutes Later 

"HAAAAAAAAAHH!" He yelled as he used his glade fern sword to slice through another Butcher goblin.

With the last of its health points destroyed, the monster went poof like a staked vamp and a faint golden glow enveloped him, letting him know that he'd reached level ten in terms of character strength. He'd been expecting a level up today and while you couldn't get a whole lot of experience points from such weak monsters, he knew he couldn't go after anything tougher until Faith was at a least a level seven. By the time she got to that level, the sexy brunette would have a good enough grip on what it meant to play in The World that he could afford to let her go off on her own. Not that he thought it would take her that long to learn to operate the controls or know what needed to be done, but rather because he'd heard some players talking back in Mac Anu about a disturbing trend that was gaining strength that went past mere fringe groups and bad apples. More and more players were appearing in The World that were making sport of Pking new players whenever the whim took them. Sometimes they just went after lone players who were just logging into the game for the first time and other times when they could gather enough like-minded creeps in time they went after three person parties. It was literally up to chance whether or not you'd be Pked while in some field or dungeon somewhere and he considered him, Willow and Oz to be pretty fortunate that they'd manage to survive as long as they had.

_If we can just hold out a little longer, until we all reach level twenty or higher, we'll be fine._ He thought to himself as he watched Faith finish off her opponent with her Spin kouga blades, _Those jerks generally only pick on those level ten or under. Probably wouldn't dare go after anyone that actually stood a chance of fighting back and winning._

Still, it pissed him off that even online there were bullies that prided themselves on picking on and taking from those weaker than themselves. Those assholes thought that taking down weaker characters made them strong, but in reality it just made them cowards in his eyes since only a coward would fight someone incapable of defeating them. If he could, he'd go and teach each and every Pker the real meaning of power, but that would have to wait until he'd leveled up some more and got some choice equipment to attach to his character. After all, power level alone wasn't always enough to beat some of those people, sometimes it all came down to what you equipped yourself with, so he'd wait before he gave them a taste of their own medicine.

"This **game ROCKS!**" Faith crowed as her own character was temporarily enveloped in a golden glow indicating her level had gone up by one, "If I'd known videogames could be this cool, I'd have been right there with you, Red and wolf man when you guys first got it working!"

"Glad you liked it, Faith. Now let's head to the Beast Temple and get that rare item." He said as he banished his weapon back into its dimensional pocket with a small but violent eruption of light at his waist, "With a little luck it's something one of us can use and if not, we can always sell it when we get back to Mac Anu."

"Gotcha! Let's go." Faith said as she two slid her twin blades back into their little dimensional pockets in an eruption of white light.

Walking along to where he saw the Beast Temple was on his H.U.D, he did his best to keep an eye on the surrounding area the closer they got to their destination. While they hadn't run into any Pkers so far, he knew that their chances of encountering them would go up the closer they got to the objective of this area. It was, after all, the one place a Pker could count on their prey being and some of those bastards got off on Pking their victims just as they emerged from the Beast Temple with their prize. Hopefully, though, they'd get the prize and then use the teleport platform just outside the front doors of the temple before anything bad happened. Otherwise he and Faith were going to get player killed and lose all the progress they'd made so far in this area, which would put him back at level eight and Faith would sink back to six. That and they'd lose quite a few items and that would really be a pity since he'd managed to get a new sword that he'd be able to use in a few levels. So with more praying than he'd done in a while, he hoped that whatever deity of The World was listening that he and the dark Slayer would manage to leave this area unharmed.

He should have known right then that whether it was the real world or The World, every god and goddess in the heavens or in hell hated his guts.

How else could you explain how the second they reached the entrance to the Beast Temple, not only did two nasty looking Edge punisher's came out of the place to blow their entry while an assortment of Twin blades and Steam gunners formed a semi-circle blocking any escape. Fortunately it didn't look like he needed to tell Faith what was going on because she immediately moved her character into a position to cover his flank as he moved to a spot most tactically beneficial to her.

"Well, looks like we got a couple of noobs here that can actually fight." Said the female Edge Punisher that emerged from the Temple alongside her male counterpart, "I saw you handle those Butcher Goblins and I've got to say I'm **very** impressed. However now is the time when all your fun comes to an end and for the fun to begin for the rest of all of the rest of us."

_Not good! _Xander thought as he looked around at the forces that desired to PK him and Faith, concluding that they were outnumbered five to one.

Using a function that seemed to be unique to Willow's station alone, he was able to see the levels of each of the Pkers and not one of them was below twenty. Adding to that the fact that he recognized a few nasty weapons plus powerful armor on each of them and the odds definitely were not stacked in favor of him and Faith coming out alive. Even if they were fortunate enough to pull off several Rengeki power combos to take a chunk out of each Pker's health points and even managed a Beast Awakening to increase their speed and strength, it would still not be enough to take out all ten of them. Even with the increased reflexes Faith possessed as the Slayer wouldn't do much since the speed of the person working the controller would only help so much, given the speed of the controller. All in all the stage seemed to be set for him and Faith to get Pked but he'd be damned if he gave these assholes the pleasure of seeing him squirm.

"The only fun you'll be having is the kind where you see your health points hit zero!" He yelled as he pulled his sword out from its dimensional pocket while at the same time using Warrior Blood and Knight Blood to increase both his and Faith's chances if only by a bit.

As soon as he drew his weapon, though, the blue energy field that went up each time battle was initiated on a field and he knew that one way or another it was now PK or be Pked. Against probably every rulebook on strategy in existence, he charged the apparent leader of the Pkers head on with a Sword Flash Art. Surprise of surprises, he connected even though he knew the bitch could have countered his move with an art of her own and even get a Rengeki out of it, which would bring her closer to an Awakening. Still, it didn't matter and any break he got in this fight he'd take no matter what it was since at this point beggars couldn't be choosers. Through the headphones present in the headset, he could hear Faith laying into the rest of the Pkers and, judging from the minor griping he was hearing, she was using their numbers to her advantage. One of the pluses of being attack by so many people at once in an enclosed area like this was that they'd just get in one another's way if they went at a target all at once. A smart group of warriors would attack her in groups of three or four while the others hung back a bit and kept the target pinned down with attack spells like Firestorm or status changing items like The Death.

_Fortunately just like the bullies and jocks in real life these guys are all brawn and no brains!_ He thought as he got a few normal slashes in with his sword before the leader forced him into defending, _If me and Faith can just keep them from coming up with an actually intelligent battle plan, we just might be able to pull this off._

He was soon reminded not to get ahead of himself when the leader powered up her broadsword and delivered an attack that sent him flying across the circular enclosure and right into the energy field. It knocked his health points almost down to half the max and as soon as he was back on his feet he used two health drinks from his items inventory to push it back up to where it needed to be. Deciding to go for a long-range assault, he activated a Firestorm item with the bitch as the target, causing her to be pelted with fireballs from above. Luck of luck her partner, the second Edge Punisher that had come out of the temple with her, was hit as well knocking down his health points a bit as well. Charging forward, he began laying down slashes even before the rain of fire had ended knowing that he'd only have a second or two to take advantage of his targets' inability to attack before they'd be back at it.

Unfortunately, as he looked at the damage he was doing to their health points, he realized that while it was going down for both Edge Punishers it wasn't going down nearly enough for his liking. At the rate he was going he'd be out of health point replenishing items and completely without any spell casting items like Tidal Wave just by defeating these two, never mind the other eight. As he watched the last of the fireballs fall, he immediately used a Lateral Moon Art in order to fling both Edge Punishers into the field and buy himself some time. Looking around he was surprised to find that Faith had managed to PK two of her opponents while the remaining six looked like they might start considering long range attacks any minute. Targeting the largest clump of them he could find, he used a Tidal Wave Item knocking four of them off their feet and causing the remaining two to look at their fallen friends in shock. Just like he anticipated, Faith took full advantage of the attention being off her for a moment delivered a powered up lunging stab with her twin blades that sent the two Pkers into the energy field. Without even waiting a moment, the dark Slayer turned her attention to the four he'd hit with the spell. Hopefully between the two of them they'd be able to keep the Pkers off their guard long enough to take out the majority of them and **that** would force the remaining ones to use a Smokescreen to flee. So with that in mind, he tried to put some distance between him and the two he'd chosen to focus his attention on, the leader and her partner, so he could set them up for another Firestorm spell. However he didn't get more than seven steps away before he felt something tear into his back and send him flying over, then rolling on the ground. Wincing a bit as he used quick rise to get his character back on his feet he was reminded of one of the things he hated about playing in The World and that was the restricted levels of pain sensations the headset gave him when an enemy scored a hit.

_I know there's a safety limit and everything so no one gets seriously hurt, but it still stings like a sonuva bitch!_ He thought as he got back to his feet just in time to get slammed with a double hit from the broadswords of his two targets causing him even more pain as his health points dropped past the halfway point.

Hearing Faith cry out in pain and then a few moments later curse louder than any sailor on the planet Earth, he knew she was experiencing a similarly bad moment of luck and knew that unless something happened to give him and the dark Slayer an advantage, they were through.

"Nice try, noob! You and your friend actually forced us to get serious but you had to have known you never stood a chance to begin with!" The leader said, sounding so sickeningly smug that he put her on his 'someone I **WILL** get even with' list along with Snyder, Larry and Deadboy, "Any last words before I send ya off back to your last save?"

"How about 'always have someone guarding your rear'?" Came a particularly disgusted male voice two seconds before sword he didn't recognize slammed into the leader of the Pkers, knocking her life points down to zero in one hit.

The bitch's partner only had a moment to react and unfortunately that wasn't enough as he was soon sent in the opposite direction as the leader with another vicious horizontal slash. As he looked up at his unexpected savior, he was struck by how the guy didn't look like any of the character types he'd seen in the world so far. He wore a horned steel gray helmet with white horns and red eyes, leaving only his mouth visible, but had an unmistakable aura of power. Feeling a soothing feeling from his headset and watching his health points rise back up to the max, he rose to his feet and wondered whether or not he was looking at an ally or just an enemy pretending to be an ally. Clad in a body suit of purple chain mail with pure white armor at strategic points on his body, he definitely looked the part of a soldier or, given the location, a knight. Given the weapon that man wielded, he was obviously a blade brandier like him but when an attempt was made to use the headset's special feature to get a read on this guy's level, all he got were question marks. For every stat from physical attack strength to magical defense strength there was nothing but question marks where there should have been numbers.

_Is this guy an NPC, a non-playable character, or something else entirely?_ He thought to himself before he remembered that Faith was still in need of some back up.

"So, you just here for a single quick save or are you gonna help me with the rest of these jerks?" He asked, secretly hopeful that this knight would help him deal with the remaining eight Pkers, since it'd still be next to impossible for him to do on his own even with the leader and her partner down for the count.

All the guy did was give him this weird grin and then, with a battle cry to rival any warrior worth mentioning, the knight charged the remaining Pkers head on. Figuring that was a yes, he followed the guy's example, without the battle cry though, and began dealing as much damage as he could to the Pkers in order to bring the fighting to a close.

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Elsewhere, Location Unknown, Same Time 

"So the old Silver Knight of the Crimson Knights has chosen to return to The World." Spoke a man of authority as he watched the battle play out on energy screens hovering in the air before him, "And he has somehow managed to conceal his characters stats from the system."

"I thought he'd left after his failed attempt to ally with Haseo. Why is he still here?" Asked a female voice that sounded like she felt he was always right and demanded respect from everyone.

"Perhaps because he has discovered another worthy ally in the Blade brandier he has chosen to aid." Mr. Authority replied without taking his eyes off the actions on the screen before him.

"Why? Both of the players he's helping look like your usual new players, albeit a bit stronger than most targeted by Pkers." Ms. Respect stated, still unable to answer her own questions satisfactorily.

"Perhaps because both of them are more unusual than you might think, Pi." Mr. Authority stated in a tone that he was intrigued by the turn of events, "They may even be of some use to us concerning AIDA."

"You mean they might be Chosen Ones?" Pi asked with a look of moderate surprise on her glasses-wearing face.

"Not necessarily. Still I believe they bear watching for the time being." Mr. Authority replied indicating that he believed the chances of Pi's guess being true slim, "While I still expect you to devote the majority of your time to Haseo and AIDA, I also want you to check in on Nighthawk and Mistress when you can spare the time."

"Of course, Master Yata." Pi said obediently with a nod.

"Now I do believe it's time for you to drop the first bread crumb in 'The Terror of Death's' lap. Go." Yata ordered, his eyes still fixed on the battle that was drawing to a close on the screen before him.

A nod was the only response he received before he heard the sound of his subordinate's footfalls became harder to hear as the distance between them grew. His attention stayed with her only a moment before he placed all his focus on the two characters that were being helped by a player he was sure was the Silver Knight from the previous version of The World. True, there was a chance that it was a nobody that had chosen to mimic the appearance of the second in command of the Crimson Knights, but somehow he doubted it. No the man seemed to be quite familiar with how to fight in the World and the fact that he was somehow blocking an accurate reading on his statistics gave further credibility to the idea that he was not a normal player. Pi's earlier question about the Silver Knight's agenda was valid, yes, but so too was his reply to her.

While he had not done more than give the memo he received a quick glance, he knew that a deal struck with an upper level executive of CC Corp had resulted in the two characters now finishing off the Pkers being implanted with failed prototypes of the key sub project of the R.A Program. This was done with the purpose of attracting either AIDA bugs or the mysterious Tri-Edge to turn the players using the characters into Lost Ones. Personally he considered it a waste of time, since the failures had been subjected to every stimuli known and used by every type of person judged to be suitable to trigger a reaction.

Nothing had happened.

Nothing at all.

In his mind that made them waste product of the Program and something to be disposed of as soon as possible like the trash that they were in his eyes. Unfortunately Jyotaro Amagi's successor, after the madman's death in the fire at the Japan branch of CC Corp, had managed to convince the Board that he could make them work as desired. He'd even played upon their concerns that the potential for the Program to slip from their control, considering how little they knew about the original entity they were trying to recreate. He proposed that he be allowed to turn the failures into successes and that the deal he'd made with some man in America would give the as many as five to six suitable hosts for the unresponsive Phases. With these 'unique' subjects the man, a Dr. Jin Shishio, claimed that while not a part of the main Program, they could be used as an emergency termination sanction should their final product become too 'volatile'. While he was in charge of collecting the main eight Epitaph Users and placing them under CC Corp's control, he had been apprised of their existence as well as given **unofficial** orders to stay clear of them. The reason given was that it was the desire of the Board that the eight main Epitaph Users not be aware of the existence of the three failures so that if they became successes, they would be just that much more effective in their duty if it became necessary to deploy them.

_What a complete waste of corporate time and resources._ He thought to himself as he shut down the energy screen in front of him, _Even if by some miracle they do 'awaken', what's inside of them, their existence, will be unnecessary because under my direction the Program __**will**__ succeed._

Nevertheless he would continue to direct Pi to keep an eye on the two characters just to make sure that nothing from the 'waste' interfered with his objective. Should the failures begin to threaten his gathering of the Eight Phases of Morganna, he would not hesitate to take the necessary steps to **remove** them from The World.

He would delete them all and should something regrettable happen to their players in the real world, then so be it.

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Area: Delta Courageous Engaging Daydream, Same Time 

"You alright, Faith?" Xander asked as he used what recovery items he had to push both their health points back to somewhere approaching normal.

"Oh yeah! This splitting migraine I'm getting feels great!" She replied snarkily, letting her displeasure at the discomfort she'd been put through be known, "In fact as soon as I log off I'm gonna go find a nice solid wall and see if I can top it!"

"Look, it's not like I knew we were gonna run into **TEN** Pkers, alright!" He shot back, not liking the fact that she was taking something out on him that was not his fault, "If I'd known they be here, I would have insisted we head for the other teleport platform instead of the Beast Temple. Besides, if you don't want this to happen again, you've got two choices: level up **really** fast or just give up on The World entirely. Your choice, of course, but I'm not going to let a bunch of bastards like them run me out of the game!"

"I **never** said I was gonna give up The World, X! I'm just not a big fan of getting my perfect ass handed to me, even if it is my VR ass." Faith said, apparently calming down a bit now that she'd vented a little emotionally, "So what was with those pricks anyway, Xan? You piss them off or something?"

"While I confess I do not know 'Xan', as well as you do, Miss, I doubt he is responsible for this. What you just experienced is a trend that has been on the rise in this version of The World for the past nine months." The helmet-clad knight replied, apparently deciding to insert himself into the conversation before he was forgotten entirely, "P.King, or player killing, has been become more and more popular among players both for as a quick way of gaining both gold points as well as items and for the act itself. Many Pkers, such as the ones you fought here, prey upon people new to the game who have yet to grow strong enough to defend themselves. It doesn't matter that their victory is almost guaranteed due to the level difference that usually exists. They do it to see the fear in the eyes of their victim's eyes before it is snuffed out."

The following series of expletives and vulgar language that came out of Faith was so **potent** that both he and the knight winced with every word spoken. Buffy might be the queen of quips, but Faith was most definitely the princess of potty mouths as far as he was concerned. He even managed to pick up a few he hadn't heard before but that he'd save whenever Snyder acted particularly Hitler-like or when he was thinking of Deadboy.

"Why the **fuck** doesn't the company running this World do something about them!?" Faith asked with a head full of fury.

"The executives at CC Corp have made a token gesture to deal with the rise in Pking by creating the Arena, in which player killing is permitted under controlled circumstances. They believed that by creating such a place that those inclined to the act would no longer seek victims in areas and dungeons." Knight replied with disgust in his voice, expressing his opinion of the gesture, "All they've done is create a place where Pkers can show off in front of a crowd. It hasn't done a damn thing to actually stop the creeps from doing it where and when they please. The only places that are even remotely safe are the cities like Mac Anu and Dol Dana, where it is impossible to engage in battles."

"Bastards!" Faith exclaimed with equal disgust as well as a lot of anger.

"Indeed." Knight said with a nod of agreement.

"Well I'm just glad that you came along when you did." He said holding out his hand as an invitation to a handshake, "My screen name is Nighthawk and this is Mistress. Who are you?"

While no longer quite worried about the guy taking advantage of the situation and engaging in a little Pking himself, he still wasn't about to let his guard down completely around the man until he learned more about the guy. The timing of his arrival was just a **little** too convenient and the fact that he couldn't get an accurate read of the guy's stats was definitely not a point in the guy's favor.

"For safety's sake I must keep some facts to myself but if you want something to call me, Silver Knight will suffice." Knight replied with what probably was supposed to be a reassuring grin, "As for your next question of 'what are you doing in this area', suffice it to say that I was informed by a source that I might find something interesting here."

_Somehow I don't think he means interesting the same way Willow calls a book interesting._ He thought to himself as his mind worked to figure out what was going on, _More like the kind of interesting one uses in reference to a mystery or a conspiracy. Perfect! Even online we can't get away from something Hellmouthy!_

"Well, I'd better be on my way. By now a system administrator has probably noticed the little additions my friends and I put on my character." Silver Knight said before something was added to Xander's member address list, "Here's my member address. You can use it to get in touch with me. I can't guarantee that I'll get back to you right away but I'll do my best."

"Did your source say anything else other than you'd find something **interesting** here?" Xander asked, wanting to know more about the circumstances that were rapidly becoming Hellmouthy.

Unfortunately the only reply that he got was the Knight using the nearby teleport platform to disappear in a whirlpool of blue energy and golden rings.

"Great! Even in a videogame I can't get away from the cryptic, mysterious type!" He growled, making a mental note to PK the jerk if he started brooding or developed fangs.

"Tin head's definitely got the mysterious stranger act down, X, but let's follow his lead and get back to Mac Anu before more of these pricks we laid out show up." Faith said as she walked up to his right side, "I don't know how many more recovery items you got left, but I'm bettin' it's not enough to see us through another fight like that."

"Not without getting what we came for!" He said with determination as he took up a guard position in front of the entrance to the Beast Temple, "Head down into the temple and grab the item. **Then** we'll head back to Mac Anu."

For a moment it looked like Faith would question what was so important about an item that they should risk getting Pked for it. However from the miniscule shrug she did, the dark Slayer in the end decided to trust his judgment and raced into the temple. He was glad that she did as he asked since it allowed him some time to be uncharacteristically reflective and heaven forbid that the Xan-man be anything other than his usual slacker self. However life on the Hellmouth had taught him two things: 1st) Always be wary of strangers because they probably want to eye you like a Twinkie and 2nd) It is never of the good to beat the crap out of ten people and not be able to do it a second time.

However as he reflected on the events of a few minutes ago he made the mistake of ignoring a spot directly behind him. Not an unreasonable mistake, considering there was nothing but the stone wall of the temple behind him and, logically, nothing could emerge from a brick wall that could hurt him. However what watched him now could not be termed as logical nor was it something one should ever turn one's back on.


End file.
